Arjun Appadurai facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Arjun Appadurai
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Appadurai during a lecture in March 2009
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| Born | 4 February 1949 |
| Alma mater | Brandeis University (B.A.) University of Chicago (M.A., Ph.D.) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Anthropology |
| Institutions | New York University The New School University of Pennsylvania |
Arjun Appadurai (born February 4, 1949) is an Indian-American anthropologist. He is known for his important ideas about globalization. This is how cultures and economies around the world connect and change. He has also explored how modern countries develop and interact.
Appadurai has taught at many famous universities. These include the University of Chicago, Yale University, The New School, and New York University. He is a respected expert in his field.
Some of his well-known books are Worship and Conflict under Colonial Rule (1981) and Modernity at Large (1996). He also wrote Fear of Small Numbers (2006). In 1997, he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Contents
Where Did Arjun Appadurai Grow Up?
Arjun Appadurai was born on February 4, 1949. His family was Tamil and lived in what is now Mumbai, India. He went to high school in Mumbai. Then he studied at Elphinstone College there.
Later, he moved to the United States. He earned his first degree from Brandeis University in 1970. He continued his studies at the University of Chicago. There, he earned his master's degree in 1973 and his Ph.D. in 1976.
What Was Appadurai's Career Path?
Arjun Appadurai has had a long and interesting career. He has taught at several major universities.
Teaching at the University of Pennsylvania
Appadurai taught for many years at the University of Pennsylvania. He worked in departments like Anthropology. In 1984, he organized a special meeting. This meeting led to a book called The Social Life of Things (1986). This book explored how objects get their value.
Working at The New School
In 2004, Appadurai became the Provost of The New School. A Provost is a senior leader in a university. He left this role in 2006. He then became a distinguished professor there.
Joining New York University
In 2008, Appadurai joined New York University (NYU). He became a professor in Media, Culture, and Communication. He retired from NYU in 2021.
Teaching at Bard Graduate Center
In 2021, Appadurai started teaching at the Bard Graduate Center. He teaches remotely from Berlin.
Other Important Roles
Appadurai has helped start important groups. He co-founded the journal Public Culture. He also started PUKAR, a non-profit group in Mumbai. This group focuses on urban knowledge and action. He has advised many large organizations. These include the Ford Foundation, UNESCO, and the World Bank. He has received many awards and honors for his work.
What Are Appadurai's Main Ideas?
Arjun Appadurai's work often looks at how the world is changing. He studies how cultures connect and how people move across borders.
Understanding Globalization
One of his most famous ideas is about "disjuncture." This means that different parts of globalization don't always move together smoothly. He says the global world has five main "scapes" or flows:
- Ethnoscape: This is about people moving around the world. Think of immigrants or tourists.
- Mediascape: This includes all the media we see, like TV, movies, and the internet. It shapes how we see the world.
- Technoscape: This is about how technology spreads globally. It includes machines and information.
- Financescape: This is the flow of money and investments around the world.
- Ideoscape: This is about how ideas and beliefs travel globally. For example, ideas about democracy or human rights.
These "scapes" are connected but can also be out of sync. This creates a complex global world.
The Social Imaginary
Appadurai also talks about the "social imaginary." This is how people imagine their social lives. It's shaped by the five global flows mentioned above. He built on ideas from other thinkers, like Benedict Anderson. Anderson wrote about "imagined communities," which are groups of people who feel connected even if they don't know each other personally.
See also
In Spanish: Arjun Appadurai para niños
- Commodity Pathway Diversion
